The Fated Deal

Chapter 3: The Unwanted Beginning

She made a little twirl like a ballerina and at the end, flashed a smile that could swoon the guys, and posed with a single finger on the cheek.

"I'm Ophelia Jules, and it's a pleasure to meet you all!"

This girl was a little different. Contradiction to her loud personality, her sweet appearance reminded me of a girl who lives in the countryside and would have a cottage core style. With her short auburn hair and grey eyes, she looked like a warm person yet cold. Her button nose complemented her round face, with the mole on the left side of her cheek. It really did bring out the innocent girl's look. Not only that, she was gifted with heart-shaped lips and thick eyebrows that matched her eyes well. Ophelia seemed like a straight-A student and everyone loves her.

"Well, the last person to introduce themselves is..."

Silas spoke up while turning his head in my direction. The others followed him instinctively, gazes that were filled with curiosity and anticipation. I took a step forward and cleared my throat as I made a quick mental preparation.

"Hi, my name is Layla Crescentia, and I hope we'll get through this night peacefully." I said, ending it with a grin.

They stared at me with unreadable eyes. I avoided their gazes, and looked back, and looked away. It was awkward. The situation ended with someone's question.

"So what grade are you in right now?" Enzo asked, crossing his arms.

My eyes widened a little by his unexpected question. He pointed at my body, which made me look down on my outfit. I remembered that before I went to sleep, I was still in my uniform. Good job Layla.

"I'm currently in 12 grade," I replied, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Aww the youngest out of us four!" Ophelia exclaimed while doing a headlock on me.

I struggled to wriggle out from her hold while she was laughing her butt off. When I thought about it, it was not fair that my age reveal was a giveaway. I stopped my fight with her as soon as I realised something.

"Wait, you're old?" Words slipped out from my mouth without thinking

"I may be short but it's true I'm older than you, however, don't make it sound like I'm that old."

She rolled her eyes by my blunt remark, and soon let go of me. I rubbed the area of my neck that was used to be in her grasp. Silas asked her what her age was out of curiosity and made sure she was comfortable with answering. She made a peace in one hand, and another hand with five fingers up. It turned out she was not even that old, well, it was rather still young.

-

After a couple of sentences exchanged between the four of us, we found out who was the oldest out of us.  It was Silas at 30 years old, then Ophelia with 25, Enzo at 21 and lastly me at 18. I could tell one thing about this, the most unexpected age reveal was Silas because he did not look like he belonged in the 30s age range.

"I think it's time we should do what we're supposed to do in this so called dream," Enzo pointed out while twirling his finger in the air.

Suddenly, a spotlight appeared on top of the box, making it the centre of attention. We all exchanged glances and nodded as if we just sent messages telepathically. Each one of us approached the marble stand and surrounded it, one person for each side of the square stand.

"Now what?"

Enzo asked while looking at the box from all angles without touching it. Then, words started to appear on the small space unoccupied by the white box on the marble stand. It read as: "Pick one paper from the box."

Without hesitation, one by one, we picked a single paper from the box. We read it, face expressions were perplexed , then put it face down. Without saying any word, all of us moved to the chairs that were at each corner of the room.

I sat down and placed my arms on the armrest. A belt automatically strapped my arms tight on the armrest and the chair started to make questionable noises.

Zsst zsst zzzzzstt

"On standby. Please state your kind."

A voice came out of nowhere. It felt like it was from my head but not at the same time. It was right in my ear. I gulped my saliva nervously. I took a deep breath before stating what was written in the paper.

"Cyphrem, the one who ruled over the red lands. I called upon Yvonne and bless me Alphaeus." I recited softly.

With every word leaving my lips, I could feel light sensations of electricity walking on my skin. My heart was beating faster than earlier and cold beads of sweat started to appear on my forehead. I tried to use my fingers using my thumb as a distraction from this nerve wrecking situation.

"Affirmative. The procedure will start," the voice from earlier rang in my head again.

Suddenly, random metal arms came out from the back of the chair and they stopped as soon as they were right in front of me. My eyes blinked rapidly as an instinct when they flashed a green light at me, an attempt to scan me. The scanning stopped after only a couple of seconds and soon things went quiet.

I was about to say something when suddenly, a sharp pain appeared on my arm. I flinched as a result, and turned my attention to the area where the pain came from. My breath hitched, eyes were widening in horror, the urge to escape myself from this chair was getting stronger as each second pass.

A thick long needle was slowly penetrating my skin on the underside of my elbow. My whole body tensed. I tried to look away, but images kept appearing in my head, along with the continuous pain.

"ARGHH!"

The sudden loud shout made my body flinched. My eyes made their way to Enzo who was struggling to withstand the pain. From afar, I could see his body shaking. It was the same with Silas. His mouth was open, but not a single word or voice came out. Ophelia, on the other hand, was long gone. Her body was not moving, and her head was tilted to the side. She passed out.

"I thought you're not supposed to feel anything in a dream! Damn it-," Enzo howled before his body went limp.

Two down.

"When will this end?" I mumbled to myself weakly.

Tears were streaming down my face when all of a sudden, the pain stopped. The next words sounded heavenly to our ears.

"The procedure is now complete."